Are The Dodgers Really This Good?

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The Dodgers have the best record in baseball, but can they do it on the road? Against good teams?

The Dodgers have the best record in all of baseball at 20-8. They have the third best team batting average (.282) and the fourth best team ERA (3.75) and the lowest bating average against (.221). They have scored 48 more runs than they have given up, by far the largest margin in baseball. Jonathan Broxton is tied for the league lead with 8 saves.

But we don’t really know just how good these Dodgers are because they have not been tested — they have yet to even play a team with a winning record at the time they played them.

Beating up on the team's they are supposed to beat — like the expectedly weak National League West — has given the Dodgers a healthy 5.5 game lead just a month into the season, but it may also have inflated the team’s statistics and egos. How will that young pitching staff hold up on an East Coast road trip against quality teams?

We’ll find out next week, when the Dodgers head out to face the defending World Series champion Phillies followed by surprisingly good Florida Marlins.

But first, the worst team in baseball stops by Dodger Stadium — the 7-17 Washington Nationals. After sweeping that two game series (we can assume) then the Dodgers finally face a team with a winning record — the San Francisco Giants. Who are the team 5.5 games back of the Dodgers at 13-12. Of course, the Dodgers have already swept them at home once this season and are 4-2 on the year against them.

That might be enough of a test to finally see the Dodgers lose a game at home. But it won’t tell us just how good these Dodgers are. We may have to wait a couple weeks to start to understand that.